Lead User Researcher

Summary

Join Nivoda, a rapidly growing B2B marketplace in the diamond industry, as their US-based Research Team Lead. This role involves leading a small research team, conducting field research with retail partners, and using various methodologies (JTBD, usability testing, surveys) to understand customer needs. You will collaborate with various teams (product, engineering, sales) to inform product development and strategy. The position requires strong stakeholder management skills and experience building high-performing research teams. The ideal candidate will thrive in a fast-paced environment and have a deep understanding of user research principles. Nivoda offers a fully remote work environment, unlimited holiday, and the opportunity to build a team from the ground up.

Requirements

• 5+ years’ experience, ideally with experience of working in the B2B tech/e-commerce/SaaS sectors
• The ability to regularly visit US retailers to carry out field research
• A deep understanding of the theory that underpins user research, including relevant principles of psychology. This could be from a university degree or Masters in a related field (e.g., Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Sociology), or training at a well-respected boot camp
• Experience of building a high quality research team in a fast-growing company
• A track record of managing senior leadership and an ability to build relationships with people across all cultures and levels of seniority
• Practical experience of the JTBD framework, field research, diary studies, depth interviews, surveys, usability testing
• Adaptability and resilience: you can make decisions with incomplete information, remain calm under pressure and enjoy working in a dynamic environment

Responsibilities

• Create a small, first class research function
• Work directly with leadership, proactively supplying customer data to de-risk strategic decisions and guiding them on research’s strengths and limitations
• Collaborate with experienced engineers, product managers, senior designers and commercial teams to inform the direction and execution of digital products, including SaaS
• Demonstrate the ROI of research to the leadership team
• Create OKRs for the research team that align with the business’ strategic objectives
• Upskill the research team to apply the Jobs to be Done framework to deeply understand Nivoda’s customers, including mapping out their goals and communicating this effectively to Product team and wider business through goal-based archetypes
• Provide training and support to direct reports so they can conduct high quality qualitative and quantitative user research (including mixed methods) using a variety of methodologies such as: field studies, one-to-one interviews, journey maps, surveys (including ODI), diary studies, remote and in person usability testing (moderated and unmoderated), using analytics to drive decision making
• Socialise research findings across the business to drive customer empathy
• Gather and analyse customer feedback via our ‘Voice of customer’ programme and turning it into actionable tasks
• Create a research democratisation programme that empowers customer-facing teams to get reliable data from basic research
• Improve all aspects of user research projects including recruitment, session scheduling, session moderation, presentation of findings and organising incentives
• Ensure the team communicates findings and recommendations by writing and presenting persuasive and authoritative reports
• Significantly increase the research maturity at Nivoda

Preferred Qualifications

Start up/scale up experience

Benefits

• A dynamic working environment in an extremely fast-growing company
• Fully remote working
• An opportunity to build your own team and shape the future of research at Nivoda
• Cross-team collaboration with teams around the world
• Unlimited holiday